An aerial view of the LIGO detector in Livingston, Louisiana. LIGO has two detectors: one in Livingston and the other in Hanford, Washington. LIGO is funded by NSF; Caltech and MIT conceived, built and operate the laboratories.

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A view of the LIGO detector in Hanford, Washington. LIGO research is carried out by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, a group of more than 1000 scientists from universities around the U.S. and in 14 other countries.

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A technician works on one of LIGO's optics. At each observatory, the 2 1/2-mile long L-shaped LIGO interferometer uses laser light split into two beams that travel back and forth down the arms. The beams are used to monitor the distance between mirrors precisely positioned at the ends of the arms. According to Einstein's theory, the distance between the mirrors will change when a gravitational wave passed by the detector.